Bullet in the Head [US Import] - Region 0 DVD

There's a brutal and compelling grandeur to Woo's vision of Asia in the late 1960s, one that refuses either to take sides or romanticise the past. Whether it involves a crowd of student demonstrators clashing with riot police, a nightclub shootout or a helicopter attack on a Vietcong POW camp, the film's depiction of violence has a mythic intensity which crowds in around the three main protagonists, testing their loyalty to the breaking point.

Tony Leung brings out the vulnerability and drive of the young Ben, while Jacky Cheung gives an electrifying performance as Frank, half-crazed from the bullet lodged in his skull after Paul tries to shoot him in the head. Reduced to carrying out street executions to pay for the morphine he needs to deaden the excruciating pain, his mute agonies hang like a vengeful cloud over the film's closing moments as Ben hunts Paul down, forcing him to atone for his cowardly act of betrayal. Bullet in the Head is harrowing, matchless and unrelenting. --Ken Hollings